RF signals propagating through a medium generally experience non-linear amplitude characteristics, namely, different amplitude attenuations for different frequency components. Without special processing, such a propagated signal will be detected as a degraded signal.
The prior art has made wide use of impedance networks which introduce different attenuations to different frequency components of an RF signal, the components being summed at an output of the network so that attenuations of a propagated signal may be compensated, thus enabling the compensated signal to resemble the signal before propagation. As a result, information content of an original input signal may be preserved.
Prior art devices are severely restricted in the number of signal components that can be handled by the impedance elements and the speed with which the amplitude equalization is achieved. Further, such impedance elements can consume a substantial portion of the signal power, thereby adversely affecting the signal-to-noise ratio of the equalization circuitry.